Car door



E. CHRISTENSON.

Y CAR noon. 4 APPLICATION man JAN. 31, 1920.

Patented Sept. 26, 1 922.

ATTORNEY! 2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

ERNST CHBISTENSON, OF STOCKTON, W

AssIeNoa-or onrz rona'rn' cro r sroox'ron; KANSAS;

cAn-n'oon,

" Application filed January, 31', 1920. Seria1 1 Q'0 5 ,32-1.'

T0 allwhom it may concern:

Be it known that I,.ER1-Is T GHR sTnNsoN, a citizen of the United States,-resid1ng at Stockton, in the county of Books andState of Kansas, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Car Doors;and I do declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as'will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, referencebeing had to the accompanying'drawings, and to the letters and figures of reference marked thereon, which form a part of this specification. v

This invention relates to car doors and particularly to means ordinary box car into a grain car. I Since the sliding side doors of box cars are not adapted to function properly when grain is contained within the box car, it has been the practice to provide supplemental doors, either in sections or in single members to serve as a supplemental closure or dam to prevent the grain from escaping from the car door opening. Various means have been provided for accomplishingthe desired result, the mostlcommon' practice being to drive spikes into the woodwork of the cars to secure the door or door sections in place. A repeated application of this practice materially mars the wood work and requires repairs torestore the car to itsoriginal-condition.

I have provided Imeans .Whereby the boX car may be utilized as an. ordinary freight when it is necessary to transport grain, a sectional door will be available so that the door openlng may be closed in an efficient and expeditious manner car but when necessary,

lowered into functional position to serve as which Fig.

withoutthe necessity of driving nails, spikes devices into the woodfeature being that the The device isso constructed that the .sections may be normally restored out of the way ofthe properfunctioning of thebox the sections may be A an obstruction'across the door opening in a manner clearly, indicated in the drawlngs, 1n

I is a perspective view fromtheinside of the car showing'my'invention in functional position in thedoor opening.

Fig; II is a transverse ,elevational view for converting an 1,430,056 PAT 131w *orrlcfi- KANSAS, ILLIAM I. SMITH,

of theoperating mechanism, the door sec tions being shown" in cross section and movinginto' funCtionaIpOsitiOn. Fig. III is a cross sectional view of-the door sections moving'into inoperative position,'and Fig. IV isfla cross sectional view through the door, showing the elevator in plan.

Referring "now to merals of reference:

struction having a door. opening 2, the sides of whichar'e bound by the vertical posts 3 and 4- The inner ,faces of therespective posts are provided with continuous elongated grooves 5 and 6, in which are section placing devices, adapted to operate. therein. The'inner portions? and 8 of the respective grooves have their fioors9 inclined inwardly from the topto the bottom, as clearly indicated in Fig. III, the floors 9 in controlling the position of the car door section placers whereb the-proper sections will be disposed uponthe proper hangers, as will be presently described.

The mechanism for operating the tions'is'best shown'inFigs. I, II and IV, the driving mechanism being shown as secured to one of i the posts, stance post 3 sprocket wheel 10 driven by a crank 11,,the teeth" ofthe'sprocket meshing with a chain 12, passing around an upper sprocket 13. and a lower sprocket .14, the two sprockets being in line so as to insure chain willfat all times travel in a substantially. perpendicular path The ,chain. traveling in. the path as at meshes witha sprocket 16, on atransverse rod or cylinder 17,,which extends entirely across the. door opening-and carries" gears 18 and 19 at its-respective ends, which mesh the drawings by nu being effective Upon post,'8' isi mounted a that a portion of the r v door sec in. the present ini as at 15, Fig. II.

withthe vertical racks 20 and 21in slots in I the inner sides of the posts as the chain passes sprocket will be lrotated and inasmuch as it is rigid onv the cylinder or rod 17, carrying the gears 18 and 19, the gears will be rotated over the racks and therebycause the'cylin der 3 and 4: so that or rod to be raised or lowered, dependent. 1

upon the 'CllI'BCtlQIIOI rotation of. thecrank 11. The cylinder or rodv is provided with bracket arms'22 and mounted on the member 17 and these bracket arms support a transverse rod 24:, onwhich' over the sprocket 16',"the

23, which are loosely f I p 1 designates a box car of approved coni 33'and' 34, arranged in to slide against the the section placers 25 and 26, which are shown as bifurcated members, are loosely mounted, each of which is provided with an inwardly projecting hook .extension I 27, adapted to carry a plurality of d'oor'sections 28, the door sections being provided with hook engaging notches 29 and 30 whereby the hooks may engagethei n. port-engaging notches 31*and 32 are provided on each section 28 and these are adapted to engage the supporting brackets in rows on the posts 3 and 4, as will be apparent, by reference to Figs II and III. The placers are held in proper position and away from the edges of the posts by the rollers 35 and 36 on hooked ends 27 of the placers slide in the v of the grooves 5 and the ends 37 of the hooks 27 being adapted floors 9 of the "grooves.

F or example, if the all of the sections "suspended from the hooked ends of the placers 25 and 26, -the 28 will be held outwardly away from engagement by any of the hooks or supports 33 and 34. When the elevating or positioning mechanism reaches. the. bottom [oi-the grooves, the hooked ends will V placed upon the hoo s 33 and 3,4 and then elevate the remaining door sections to deposit the next succeeding d'oor section upon the next higher set of hooks 33 and 34.

The operation just described will until the requisite number are'in place.

of door sections It'will be apparent that the above operation can be accomplished and the hooked portion 37 will'move into the groove approximately the thickness of the Similar supspaced relation and i is lowered so that the rod 24, and they parts are assembled with box car at the will of y p and desire to, secureby Let- 'ters-Patent is:

continue smcethe floors 9 ofthe inner portions of the Y grooves incline outwardly and upwardly,

first section so that the second'section 28 may be deposited upon its supporting'brack- I ets and this operation may continue for each succeeding section, and set of brackets to build upthe sectional door'to the desired height. Then the hooks or placers are removed trom the top'section and the elevator, maybe raisedto a position'at the top of the door opening, there being a pawl or other fastening means for the sprocket 16, if de: sired. I y g v When'it is desired to remove the door sections, the elevating or carrying mechanism the hooks may, on account of their upturned ends, glide over the edge of the projecting portion 28' of the top door section and hook thereunderto place the section on the hook, raised slightly to free hooks 33 and 34 after which thehooks are lowered to the next section and so on pro gressively, until all of the sections are' on the hooks, whereupon the sections may be elevated to be stored in a space at thetop of the door opening until it is desired to use them again.

Attention is called to the fact that the placers 25 and 26 may automaticallytransthe hooks are then. the section from the fer 'from'one groove portion to the other "It will be apparent from the 'foregoing that the sections may be quickly and iaccurately put in p converted into av grain car or an ordinary the operator. What I claim 1. In a device of the class described, door section hangersya pluralityof door section s,

door section placers normally supporting said sections, and means for raising and, low- 1 ering the door section placers into and out of proximity with the respective-door sec-' tion hangers whereby the door sections may be transferredfrom the hangers to the placers and vice versa.

2. In a device of the plurality ofdoor hangers arranged in vertical. rows, a plurality of door sections, means for supporting said door sections, and means for bringing the door section supporting means in. proximity to the door hangers whereby thedoor sections may be trans will readily move overinto I ace and removed by inanipu- 'lating the handle 11 so that the car may be class described, a

' and elevating means, door sections,

ferred from the door supporting means to the door hangers.

3. In a device of the class described, the combination with a pair of uprights constituting the sides of a door opening, door section hangers on said uprights, a lowering door sec-- tion placers on the elevating means and normally supporting the door sections, and means for operating the elevating means whereby the door placers may deposit the door sections upon the hangers.

4. In a device of the class described, spaced vertical rows of door hangers, door sections having means for engaging said hangers, door section placers removably engaging said sections, and means for moving the door section placers vertically toward and away from the door hangers whereby the door placers may be moved into position to transfer the door sections onto the door hangers and V108.

able in said grooves and having ends bearing one direction.

against the floors of said grooves, door sections carried by said placers, and door section hangers in the path of movement of said door sections. i y

7. In a device of the class described, an endless chain, a transverse bar. vertically movable through the medium of said chain, hooked members'carried by said bar, door sections removably engaging said hooked members, and hangers for engagingthedoor sections when the hooked members-move 1n 8. In combination, parallel uprights, having endless grooves longitudinally arranged therein, each groove comprising two parallel portions and one portion of each groove being of progressively increasing depth, the other portion of each groove-being of shallow uniform depth, hooked members operable in said grooves, each hooked member being transferable from one groove of each pair to the other groove 01": the pair, door sections carried by the hooked members, and

rigid door section-supporting means in.

spaced relation adjacent to the grooves.

9. In combination, a pair of spaced uprights, a manually operable endless chain carried by one of the uprights, a transverse elevating device guided in the uprights, and

movement of the moving in response to chain, hooked placers carried by the elevating device, ported by said placers, hangers on the uprights, the door sections from the hookedplacersh In testimony whereof I affix my ERNST CHRISTENSON.

and 'door section door sections removably supdisposed to receive signature; I 

